


New Beginnings

by justtoarguewithyou



Series: Tumblr Comfort Mini Fest with SwottyPotter [10]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Muggle, F/M, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, M/M, This might be my favorite, Very fluffy, going off to college
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:42:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,815
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26699998
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justtoarguewithyou/pseuds/justtoarguewithyou
Summary: Final day of the Fest. Today's theme is New Beginnings.Sirius makes a romantic gesture, as Remus frets about college, and Hope and Lyall think about their empty nest.This might be my favorite. <3
Relationships: Hope Lupin/Lyall Lupin, Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Tumblr Comfort Mini Fest with SwottyPotter [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1933714
Comments: 4
Kudos: 26





	New Beginnings

Sirius stood outside Remus’s house with a boombox, playing Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes.”

The first few times he’d played the song, he’d held the boombox over his head, like Lloyd Dobler in “Say Anything.” He and Remus had been to see that in the theatre three times that spring. Remus loved romantic comedies. Sirius loved Remus.

Sirius had put the boom box down, and sat on his longboard in the drive way instead, yelling at Remus to come out.

“Come on, Remus,” Sirius yelled. “I’ll stay here all night.”

Hope twitched open the living room curtains, and gave Sirius a small wave. Sirius was drinking from the bottle of water he’d brought in his backpack. He was trying to follow the shade as it shifted along the driveway. He’d been out there for 45 minutes. The song was starting for the 9th time.

Hope, who had started singing along under her breath, turned to her son. “Remus, I really think he would stay all night. I don’t see why your father and I should have to suffer through all that noise.”

She covered her burgeoning smile with her hand, and did her best to not sway along to the music. She loved Sirius, and all his grand gestures. It reminded her of her husband, Lyall, when they were young. And she loved her son. But she also knew her son could hold a grudge like no one else. She wasn’t proud that he had inherited that from her.

Remus stomped over to the couch and sat down with a huff.

“Remus!” Sirius yelled. “I gave you my heart! Please don’t give me a pen!”

Sirius had used his brother’s tape recorder held up to his own stereo to dub the song onto an old cassette single. With just this song on both sides, and no need to rewind, he could keep this up all night. Or at least, as long as his batteries lasted. He’d put in new ones, and packed extra, just in case. He also brought the power cord. Sirius had never been a Boy Scout. But he did believe in being prepared.

Lyall came to the window as the song ended. He gave Sirius a big wave. Sirius waved back.

“Hi, Lyall!” Sirius yelled, and then flipped the cassette over. He shrugged apologetically.

Lyall turned to Remus and said, “Tell me, son, what exactly did he do?”

Remus looked away from his parents and mumbled.

“Louder, dear,” his mother said.

“He came up behind me while I was working and grabbed me. I didn’t see him come in, and I wasn’t expecting it, so I screamed like a little girl in front of everyone. All the customers, and _my boss_ ,” Remus emphasized.

Remus was working at the mall that summer to help save up for his college expenses. Sirius’s Uncle Alphard was helping him pay for college, so Sirius was unemployed. He often loitered around the mall food court, waiting for Remus to take his breaks. He always had an Orange Julius ready for Remus’s lunch breaks.

“Did he apologize?” Hope asked, biting her lips together after asking the question, to keep from smiling. She knew she wouldn’t improve Remus’s mood by appearing amused.

Sirius answered as though he could hear her.

“I said I was sorry. Come on, Remus. It’s so hot out here…” Sirius lifted his shirt to wipe the sweat off forehead. Hope sighed. She remembered when Lyall had abs…

“It was undignified!” Remus pouted on the sofa, his arms crossed.

Lyall rolled his eyes, and went to the kitchen to pour Sirius a glass of cold lemonade. He walked it outside.

“I think you’re breaking him down,” Lyall said, and sat down on the driveway.

“Remus!” Lyall yelled. “Come on out!”

Sirius gave Lyall a high five, and the two of them laughed. Sirius gulped his lemonade, and put the empty glass down in the grass. Lyall usually took Sirius’s side, as he knew his son could be very stubborn. Lyall remembered what it was like to be on the receiving end of Hope’s stubbornness. He swayed along with the chorus.

“You’re both off to college soon,” Lyall said, pulling himself out of the song.

“Yeah. I’m really looking forward to it,” Sirius said.

Sirius had been accepted to the California Institute of the Arts to study animation. His uncle had also put him in touch with some friends at Pixar, a relatively new company that was getting into computer animation. Sirius was excited about the possibilities.

“It won’t be easy, being so far apart,” Lyall said, with a sneaking suspicion his son was upset about more than the incident at the mall. Remus was planning to study math at UC Berkeley.

“No,” Sirius said. “But, I know I want to be with Remus. And we can write, and I’ve already bought us some long-distance calling cards so we can call each other, and we can see each other on weekends and breaks. Alphard said he’d help me buy a car.”

“I’m just not sure a long-distance relationship…” Lyall began.

“Mr. Lupin,” Sirius said solemnly, holding his hand out to stop Lyall’s train of thought. “I love your son. I know your son. I know he’s in there pouting because I embarrassed him today. I know I’ll probably be in your driveway for another couple of hours unless Mrs. Lupin can talk him into forgiving me sooner.”

Lyall groaned. The concrete was very hard. But he had chosen to cross the battle lines.

“But,” Sirius continued, “there’s nowhere I’d rather be. I know you think we’re 18, and we’re idiots, and that I sound like a moron for saying Remus is my destiny. But he is. I know he is.”

Sirius shrugged his shoulders and smiled at Lyall. What else could he say?

Lyall sighed, thinking Sirius sounded very young. And he looked very young, Lyall thought, as Sirius sat there in his neon green board shorts, and old white tank top. Sirius had let his hair grow long, and Lyall thought he looked like a surfer more than ever.

Maybe when Remus has gone, and he and Hope had time for themselves again, he’d take up surfing, Lyall thought. He’d had abs once. He wondered how long it would take him to get them back. He was still a relatively young man. Not even 40! He’d just turned 37.

Even though he’d never let on, Lyall Lupin was a firm believer in young love. He and Hope had married shortly after high school graduation, even with the threat of the Draft looming over him, and had Remus 9 months after that. They were still so happy together. He loved his wife, he loved his son. He loved this doofus, sitting beside him in “the light, the heat.”

Inside, Hope sat on the much softer couch with her son.

“Is this just about what happened at work?” she asked knowingly, pushing her son’s hair out of his eyes.

“No,” Remus said, curling into her lap.

“What is it, then, baby?” she asked her _only_ baby. Maybe she and Lyall would have another. She was only 36. It had been so hard when they were young, working in a canning factory. Then, she’d had Remus, and had stayed at home with him. They’d never had that much money. Lyall joined the Navy, and they ended up in California. But she loved her husband, and her son. She was excited about his going to college—the first of their family to go.

“What if we go away to college, and Sirius decides he wants to break up?” Remus asked. Hope sighed. “What if we grow apart? What if he meets some devastatingly handsome surfer person, or some artistic soul and decides that they have more in common, and he doesn’t want a nerd like me who loves poetry and math?”

“Well, my dear, my crystal ball is in the shop. But I can tell you that Sirius must love you an awful lot if he’s been sitting outside in the heat for this long.”

“I’m scared, mom.”

“I know, dear,” she rubbed his shoulder. “I can’t tell you what the future holds, but I can tell you not to be stubborn and make yourself miserable for no reason. Believe me, baby. It doesn’t make your life any easier to hurt before there’s any reason to.”

She smiled at her kiddo. Her smart, stubborn, grudge-holding kiddo.

“Ugh, I love you so much. Just like me. Go on. Take pity on Sirius and your father. Let’s go get a burrito down the street. I’m not cooking tonight. And then we can go to the beach for a while. Okay?”

“All right,” Remus sighed, and his mother squeezed him tight.

“It won’t be easy, but you’ll be ok. Look me and dad. We’ve lived through so much. College will be a piece of cake.”

Remus smiled, and got up smoothed his shorts, and wiped his eyes.

Remus opened the screen door, and looked sheepishly at Sirius, who jumped up the second Remus opened the door.

“Hi,” Sirius said, turning off the boom box, and tucking his hair behind his ears.

“Hi.” Remus said.

“Thank goodness,” Lyall said, pushing himself up, and smiling at his wife. He picked up the glass, and put it inside the door. Hope came out with her purse, and their beach bag packed with towels, and a blanket, and sun screen. She jingled the car keys at Lyall, handed him the keys.

Lyall smiled at her, and kissed her cheek. “Stubborn, just like his mother,” he whispered in her ear.

They got into the station wagon, and rolled down the windows, and waited.

“I’m sorry,” Sirius said, reaching out to hold Remus’s hand. “I didn’t mean to embarrass you. I just knew you were about to get off work, and I was excited to see you.”

“I’m sorry, too. I’m just…”

“Hungry,” Lyall said from the driver’s seat. “Come on boys. Talk on the way.”

Sirius kissed Remus’s cheek, and Remus smiled at him.

They went to dinner, and laughed, and Hope and Lyall told stories about their being young and in love. Sirius smiled at Remus with all of his easy confidence, and Remus knew that he was a lot like his mom: patient and loving and strong.

“If you guys can make it through deployments, I think Remus and I can make it through a few semesters apart,” Sirius said, holding Remus’s hand under the table.

Lyall grinned at them. Dorks, the both of them.

They went to the beach after, and while the boys swam, Lyall pressed play on Sirius’s boom box, and the song started somewhere in the middle.

Lyall sang into Hope’s ear, and she giggled, as he grabbed her behind.

“In your eyes, the light, the heat, I am complete,” Lyall sang.

**Author's Note:**

> Please send me prompts. This is more fun than watching TV. I am on [Tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/justtoarguewithyou)


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